Anderson Silva says Jon Jones superfight "something I never wanted"
The rise of Jon “Bones” Jones has caused many MMA fans across the globe to wonder just what would happen if he stepped into the cage with the current best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, Anderson Silva. Thoughts of a possible megafight between the two have danced into our MMA dreams as we debate just how good Jones is and if he could be the first to hand Silva a loss in six years.
But according to Silva, that fight will never happen.
Despite Silva’s occasional trek into the land of the 205 pounders, where Jones stands firm as king, Silva has no desire to face Jones to see who the best in the world is. Even if he makes short work of Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153 on October 13 — and with Jones having already cleaned out the division, save for a couple of fighters — Silva simply doesn’t want the fight.
“(The Jon Jones fight) is something I’ve never wanted,” Silva said on a media conference call to discuss his upcoming fight with Bonnar in his backyard of Rio de Janerio, Brazil. “I won’t be pretentious and say that I’d want to move up, especially because there are other guys in the weight class and on our team like Rafael Feijao (Cavalcante) and (Antonio Rogerio) Minotoro Nogueira, guys who could potentially face Jon Jones in the future.
“What got me this far is that I’m grounded; my weight class is 185 and I’m 37 years old. I feel I need to be honest and continue to build what I’ve built and that is to keep defending my belt at 185.”
However, he has entertained a fight with current welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre — should St. Pierre get past Carlos Condit at UFC 154 on November 17. For Silva, that fight is likely more realistic because both GSP and himself are closer in weight than The Spider is with Jones. Jones has stated in the past that he walks around at 220 pounds and it’s unlikely that he’ll remain in the 205 division due to his natural growth as a man. It is conceivable that if the two were ever to step in the cage that Jones would have a tremendous size advantage. Also, with Silva being 37 and Jones just now peaking at 25, the light heavyweight champ would have youth on his side as well.
Nevertheless, it’s a tantalizing dish that we won’t get a chance to taste and will likely have to debate in a fantasy universe.
